Prep Girls Soccer: Harlem shuts out Hononegah

Thursday

May 8, 2014 at 10:22 PMMay 8, 2014 at 10:22 PM

By Adam J. KradleFor The Register Star

ROCKTON — Harlem has cleared the first two of three big hurdles as it shoots for an unbeaten conference season. The Huskies (16-1, 7-0) spoiled Hononegah’s senior night on Thursday with a 2-0 shutout victory that brings them one step closer to an outright NIC-10 title. Harlem handed Boylan its only conference loss earlier in the season, and now just needs to beat a tough Freeport team – whose only conference loss came against Boylan on Wednesday — to reach their goal. The Huskies and Pretzels square off Monday night in Freeport.

“It was just really important for us to win this game because then we have Freeport and that’s going to be a big game,” said Harlem junior forward Emily Scott, who scored her team’s first goal with 18:44 left in the first half.

The Huskies dominated the first 40 minutes, out-shooting Hononegah 9-3. The Indians (10-5, 4-3) struggled to make the ball dangerous on the few occasions they were able to get into an attacking position.

“We didn’t do a good job creating chances when we got in their end,” Hononegah coach Jeremy Aldrich said. “We just needed a boost from somewhere and we couldn’t find it.”

The Huskies scored their second goal with eight minutes left before halftime when McKaela Schmelzer headed a crossing pass high into the net, and they made the lead stand up despite seeing a little more pressure from the Indians in the second half.

“We had better pressure and the energy that we needed in the first half,” Aldrich said.

But while they were able to get as many shots off as Harlem (5) in the second half, the Indians weren’t able to find the net against Harlem senior goalkeeper Alyssa Sickler.

“When McKaela scored basically we knew we had to stay strong and keep them without a goal and get Alyssa that shutout,” Scott said.

The win over Hononegah assures Harlem of at least a share of the NIC-10 title, but the Huskies aren’t looking to settle for that.

“We knew (Hononegah) was going to be tough,” Harlem coach Brad Heidenreich said. “Freeport will be equally as tough if not a little more tough. They’re high pressure and a very physical team so we’re going to have to come out and match their intensity and hopefully we’ll walk away with the championship by ourselves. Right now we’ve got a share of it, but we’ve worked too hard to share so we’re going to try to get it all.”

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